Dale May | NY Advertising Photographer, Director & CGI Artist

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Horse Whisperer | CGI & Photography Case Study | Dale May, NY

Horse Whisperer

"Born to ride. No horse required."

Services

Concept Development, Art Direction, Studio Photography, Photorealistic CGI Environment Creation, AI Enhancement, Compositing & Post-Production | 2025

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Horse Whisperer is a hybrid photography and CGI personal project created by Dale May in 2025. Model Molly Dryman, a first-time rider, was photographed in a Connecticut studio using a practical horse head rig, then composited into a fully CGI-built Montana landscape rendered in Blender 3D. AI previsualization was used in pre-production to communicate the concept before the shoot. The entire production, from concept through final composite, was completed by one artist with no location fees, no travel, and no weather dependencies. The series earned an Honorable Mention at the International Photography Awards 2026 and was selected for Lürzer's Archive 200best Digital Artists Worldwide 2026/27.

The concept

When I meet someone new, I'm not thinking about who they are, I'm thinking about the character waiting inside them and what story they could tell with the right wardrobe, the right light, and the right world built around them. My personal work is a series of cinematic stills, key frames pulled from a movie that doesn't exist. Images that give you just enough to build your own story.

When I met Molly in Bridgeport, CT, I saw a horse whisperer. Funny though, she had never been on a horse in her life.

The challenge

The concept was clear. The obstacles were significant.

Molly had no riding experience and certainly wasn't going to perform death defying stunts. The landscape I had in mind: wide Montana plains, golden and stormy, with the kind of light that only exists for twenty minutes on a good day, was a world away from a Connecticut winter. And as with all my personal work, the budget was as close to zero as I could make it. I treat personal projects as boot camp: constrain the resources, sharpen the craft. When a well-budgeted commercial job comes in, you already know how to solve the hard problems. Most importantly, CGI gives me complete authorship over every element in the frame, nothing is left to chance, compromise, or the limitations of what exists in the physical world.

The challenge then was this: create a photorealistic, cinematic series of a woman riding and commanding horses across a landscape that didn't exist, in weather we didn't have, with a subject who had never sat in a saddle.

The approach

Pre-Production & Previsualization

Before anything was shot, I used AI to generate previsualization imagery, enough to communicate the concept to Molly clearly, get her excited about the vision, and confirm she was comfortable with what we were creating together. This is something I do on commercial jobs too: give the talent and the agency team something concrete to react to before a single light is set up.

Molly came on board immediately and helped pull wardrobe. The cowboy boots (essential to the series) came from my cousin Deena, who runs Botablu.com, an online vintage pre-owned boot shop. A creative favor in exchange for images. That's how personal work gets made.

Building the World

Constructing the environment first and shooting the talent to match it is central to my hybrid workflow. Knowing the light direction, color temperature, and perspective of a CGI scene before a shoot means every lighting decision in the studio is intentional, with no guessing in post. On this series it ran both ways. Some environments were developed alongside wardrobe prep. Others were built around frames that only existed once we were shooting. 3D allows for both, and that flexibility is what leaves room to experiment on set.

On set

For Molly to have something real to interact with, I built a practical horse head rig from a pillow, gaffer tape, A-clamps and a C-stand. For riding sequences, a stool and baby pin wall mounts on a wooden base gave her the correct posture and foot position. Simple, effective, invisible in the final image.

I also left room to be surprised. Some of the strongest frames in this series came from moments I didn't plan, a glance, a shift in posture, something Molly did instinctively that suggested an entirely new scene. That's the negotiation at the heart of every portrait: truth and performance, pulling against each other until something real emerges.

Directing someone who isn't a professional model requires a specific kind of communication. The goal is always authenticity, explaining clearly what you're after and finding the language that gets you there without making the subject self-conscious. Experience with everyone from first-time talent to major celebrities has taught me that the challenge is always the same. The approach has to be tailored every time.

Post-Production

After the shoot, I reviewed selects with an open mind, honoring what I'd planned while staying alert to frames that deviated from it in interesting ways. Final selects were siloed from their backgrounds and brought into 3D software as image planes, with CGI environments built around them. The lighting from the live shoot dictated how each environment was lit, the real world and the digital world aligned from the start.

The CGI horses were posed, lit, and rendered for every scene. Final compositing was done in Photoshop, with AI enhancement applied selectively, not to alter the content of the images, but to add fine surface detail to areas like the horse's mane. The last step was careful masking to preserve the integrity of the original photography and CGI render beneath the AI layer. The technology serves the image. It never authors it.

The result

The opening image of this series: Molly rearing up on horseback in the middle of a Montana landscape, storm clouds breaking behind her, the light exactly as I'd imagined it, could not have been made any other way.

Horse Whisperer earned an Honorable Mention in Special: Digitally Enhanced at the International Photography Awards 2026, entered and recognized as a complete series rather than a single image. It was printed in Lürzer's Archive 200best Digital Artists Worldwide 2026/27 (Edition 8), and is among the works that contributed to Dale's selection in 200best Advertising Photographers 2025/26.

Consider what a traditional production might require: a celebrity with no riding experience, a trained stunt coordinator, a location scout finding that exact landscape, a production window hoping the weather cooperated. Weeks of logistics. A budget that reflects it.

This was built in my home studio in the middle of winter.

That is the argument for the hybrid approach. I see something in my mind and want it created exactly as I see it. CGI, AI, and photography used together make that possible, not as a shortcut, but as a creative system that removes the gap between imagination and execution.

The series

Horse Whisperer: Cowgirl model connecting with a wild horse in a Montana landscape. Hybrid studio photography and photorealistic CGI by Dale May.

Horse Whisperer: Cowgirl model laughing in the doorway of a CGI-built Montana barn. Hybrid studio photography and photorealistic CGI by Dale May.

Horse Whisperer: Cowgirl model riding a horse across a Montana field, seen through a barn doorway. Hybrid studio photography and photorealistic CGI by Dale May.

Horse Whisperer: Close up of cowgirl leather fringe boots on a dirt path. Hybrid studio photography and photorealistic CGI by Dale May.

Horse Whisperer: Close up portrait of cowgirl model Molly Dryman with dirt and sweat on her face in a Montana landscape. Hybrid studio photography and photorealistic CGI by Dale May.

Credits

Photography, CGI, Art Direction & Post-Production: Dale May

Agent: WSWcreative

Model: Molly Dryman

Cowboy Boots: courtesy of Deena Clawar / botablu.com

Working with Dale

Every technique in my commercial work gets proven on personal projects first. Personal work is where I road test lighting setups, build CGI and AI workflows, and solve the hard problems on my own time, before a client's budget and deadline are on the line. By the time an approach reaches a campaign, it is already tested. Agencies and brands get the benefit of that experimentation without paying for the learning curve, and without the risk of trying something untested on set.

Horse Whisperer set out to prove a specific idea: that the warmth of outdoor lifestyle photography, real-feeling natural light and unforced emotion, can be built entirely inside a studio and dropped into photoreal CGI environments. That is the value of hiring an artist who never stops making work for himself: the range is real, the methods are road tested, and there is one point of contact from concept through final delivery. If you have a project that needs outdoor lifestyle realism created and controlled entirely in-studio, let's talk.

To start a conversation, get in touch or see more personal work.

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